THE NOURISHING EFFECT

CHAPTER 1
“In the continuing debate about how to control soaring healthcare costs, poor nutrition and lack
of access to healthy food are routinely ignored,” write David Waters, CEO of Community Servings,
and Robert Greenwald, director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law
School. 107 Public and private
insurers spend millions of
dollars on health care for
critically ill patients, but if
the patients do not have the
right food, there is much less
chance of a lasting recovery.
Today the demand for
medically tailored meals far
outstrips the supply of service
providers. Community Servings
is one of fewer than a dozen
nonprofit organizations across
the country that are able to
deliver complex, medically
tailored meals to critically ill
patients. Nursing homes and
hospitals can and do provide
such meals, but organizations
like Community Servings can
produce and deliver them at a
fraction of the cost. Yet nursing
homes, hospital stays, and prescriptions are covered by insurance, while medically tailored meals are not.
As part of healthcare reform, state Medicaid programs could seek permission to experiment
with medically tailored meals. As noted above, the vast majority of Community Servings’ clients
are income-eligible for Medicaid. The cost savings alone should be enough to grab policymakers’
attention. Researchers found that the monthly healthcare spending on patients who were receiving
medically tailored meals was 37 percent lower than the expenditures for those with comparable
conditions who were not receiving these kinds of meals. 108 Studies also show that patients
receiving medically tailored meals adhere more closely to their medication regimens, miss fewer
medical appointments, and are readmitted to the hospital at lower rates. 109 Ninety-six percent of
the healthcare workers surveyed by Community Servings reported that the home-delivered meals
improved patients’ health.
Todd Post/Bread for the World
David Waters, CEO of
Community Servings,
displays one of the
medically tailored
meals prepared
and delivered by
the organization to
chronically ill clients.
WWW.HUNGERREPORT.ORG • 2016 HUNGER REPORT 65